The proportion of patients with indefinite complaints such as abdominal distension, heartburn, nausea and vomiting among those with gastrointestinal diseases has recently increased steadily and now reaches 60% or above.
Most of these indefinite complaints are caused by the functional anomaly of the digestive tract. For example, it is known that a patient with epigastric indefinite complaints such as chronic gastritis is in a state of delayed gastric emptying, while a patient with hypogastric indefinite complaints such as irritable bowel syndrome including abnormal evacuation and abdominal pain as the cardinal symptom is in a state of intestinal hyperanakinezia.
It is ascertained that stress and anxiety are causative of any indefinite complaint, and in this sence, it is not too much to say that indefinite complaint is one of modern diseases.
Dopamine antagonists, musculotropic agents for regulating the movement of smooth muscles and acetylcholine release accelerators are now used in order to ameliorate the above gastrointestinal indefinite complaints. However, dopamine antagonists cause potent adverse reactions such as parkinsonism, so that they must be used carefully; musculotropic agents for regulating the movement of smooth muscles cause adverse reactions such as constipation unfavorably; and acetylcholine release accelerators do not effectively act as an antiemetic or anxiolytic, thus being unsatisfactory.